Before Outlaw Republic, I was designing everything from spas to bars in commercial design & build and, later, architectural practice. Suited. Polished. All *mostly* tolerable (if you're okay with daily soul erosion).

But here’s what made my eye twitch...

For the big-budget businesses it was all pitch decks, entourages, and breathless enthusiasm. But independent businesses? They got told their ideas were ‘ambitious’ and sent on their not-so-merry way with a powerpoint—and a prayer from me.

Because the thing was, I'd been on the other side of that table...

Before I was a designer, I ran my own bricks-and-mortar business. And when it came time for me to refit, I went looking for a pro too—someone to help me design a space that actually said something. But what I got was astronomical quotes, dead eyes, and an unmistakable air of “oh, bless.”

(Shoutout to the guy who literally said “We don’t really work with little businesses like yours…” I think about you often. And not because I’m over it).

So I did what any underfunded middle-child with an achievement complex would…

I set about it myself. I obsessed over the stuff that actually makes design work—consumer psychology, brand strategy, experiential design—testing it all in my own business. And the results left me hooked.

So much so that a few years later, I went on to study design and architecture and executed the cleanest career pivot since TikTok decided snail mucin was skincare (read: sticky, not clean, and certainly not anti-aging).

Only to find the industry hadn't changed a bit…

Independent businesses were still being laughed off by designers who thought “design strategy” meant picking a Farrow & Ball colour with the lights off. Same patronising tone. Same wild-eyed quotes. Same assumption that if you don’t have £250k and a six-location rollout plan, you must be “just a passion project.”

But here’s the thing: Small doesn't mean unserious and a tight budget doesn't mean no budget.

And the people behind independent brands? You’re the ones actually making things better. You’ve got vision, guts, and the tenacity to make things happen. 

If the industry wasn’t going to make a space for you? I’d make one myself. So I did. And I called it Outlaw Republic.